1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for handling, moving and stacking bundles of paper such as magazines. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for efficiently handling and moving irregular-height bundles of strapped, banded, loose, or shrink wrapped magazines from a postal routing bundling machine and evenly stacking the bundles magazines onto a pallet.
In the magazine publishing and distribution business, magazines are prepared for shipment through the United States Postal Service by placing the names and addresses of the subscribers on the magazines. The Postal Service prefers to receive these magazines in presorted bundles arranged according to postal routing and gives a discount for bundles so arranged. Postal routing refers to zip code, carrier route, walk route, etc.
A bundling machine is used to bundle magazines according to postal routing. Depending on the number of magazines going to a particular postal route, the magazine bundling machine may bundle more than one bundle of magazines per postal route, however, there may be only enough magazines for a smaller bundle. Therefore, a magazine bundle may be between a certain minimum and maximum height. Generally, the height of a magazine bundle may be from two inches to a maximum of seven inches in height.
After the magazines are bundles according to postal routing, the bundles may be placed on pallets for handling by the Post Office. These bundles were placed by hand on the pallet, with the object of trying to even out the level of the stacked bundles for stable shipping. However, magazine bundle heights being unpredictable, caused many problems for achieving even pallet stacking levels necessary for stable shipment. Much time was spent in trying to stack the magazine bundles as evenly as possible, but due to time constraints and the skill levels of shipping personnel, stable pallet loads were not always achieved.